multiple threads entwined

though top two are remotely interconnected but this post would have multiple threads...

~~~

the magic of adaptability is such that you get as comfortable in your current habitat as you were in your last pretty soon.

the biggest flip of living with folks is that your probably can't make out on the couch as often as you would like with your girl. you probably will need to restraint her from hollering when in ecstasy and you would need to stop from making your point while in an argument with her, just because you don't want your family to be ruffled. the easy way out for us kids which is more imposed than chosen in our part of the world is to move out under the wrap of work and then we don't want to come back

~~~

i don't really love travel for work that comes with anxiety. and the impending travel is exactly that. still waiting for the visa. although this means that i won't be waiting for the connecting flight in dubai for 2+4 hours as i would rather take a direct flight than worry about accumulating flying miles.

living in middle east would be a little hard for me, and lack of winters in delhi this season have reinforced that assumption a lot. i guess i should be happy that my visits to any of these counties don't ever exceed a week.

~~~

i have been searching for some good pictures to put up on my right side bar, of a curvy body. i have been talking about my love for the plump. for those who are are getting gross ideas, please go check this out. somehow i am not able to find the other posts that i have written on this topic. and if anyone can suggest me any good wallpapers to put on my sidebar, it would be great. thanks in advance.

stop terrorism

some outcomes are visible of the deceleration of government to seriously clamp down on terrorism. i hope that all these continue and gather steam as it roll and not loose steam. some visible steps are:-

1. home minister's, chief minister and deputy to the chief minister's resignation [and acceptance of two of them]
2. prime minister's commitment to define steps and strategy within 100 days
3. finance minister's change of role

although we would like to hear steps such as:-

1. nab all the terrorist's associated with the planning of this one within 100 days
2. destruction of all terrorist training modules in kashmir and other parts of country before this year end
3. sealing of porous borders in east with immediate effect
4. formation of single point of contact agency to counter terrorism under central government which will interact with defense staff, intelligence bureau, raw, state police and governance before year end

some of these points in wishlist might sound improbable but until and unless we want to crack these at war footing, it would surely fizzle out this time too




and i don't blame english or australian or any cricketing teams from deciding against traveling to india now. if i as an indian do not feel great enough to go out shopping for diwali, i certainly can't expect their folks to be willing of letting them go.

india - where is it headed?

india set a record of being first to make a successful maiden landing on the moon, first to take as many as 14 scientific tools on its single flight.

although space didn't make soviet union unbreakable but it made it garner a huge respect from the world.

wasim akram lambasted hayden on calling india a third world country. although i don't mind hayden for calling such names because the list is originally theirs so it doesn't matter who they put into it. his act is as inconsequential as the list itself. although what was most funny was akram's calling australia a "village" in comparison to india. especially after today's feat of chandrayaan when it sent first pictures of the moon back home :D

although akram demands a little more space but that will come later. i am just concerned about what kind of image are politicians trying to make out of the country with hindu activists getting apprehended by the police. it is discounting all the positive work done by technologists and scientists.

i am seriously starting to believe that this is more than just about religion. will have to get hold of the book "terror incorporated: tracing the dollars behind the terror networks":-

decay

i have always maintained and often repeated that timing in visiting historical monuments here in india is the most important factor in the rating that your visit gets.

this saturday saw me getting out of delhi, a long awaited break. although the program was for rishikesh, it was later changed to fatehpur sikri. om wanted to click which he anyways wasn't really able to ;)

got started later than 3 in the morning, late by over an hour. but reached when it was still cooler. started with om getting pissed off by the change in how things work around there and then roaming around the fort complex without a guide.

while om, aro and jo were most interested in exercising their photography skills, i wanted to have some group photographs when while getting bored i realised a story there. looking at the uneven growth of wild shrub in the place where once there would have been much revered tulsi plant of maharani jodha bai herself, i lamented the decay.

the place of tulsi:-



that was the point when i pointed my camera at the walls, the crevices, the cornices, the architecture, the doors and everything. the first thought was how beautiful it all would have been in its glory:-

this is one of those exquisitely done parapets which amazes me:-



i am sure they would have looked beautiful in their times, they seem eroded now. what makes me curious is that although the age of the parapet above and this one below would be much similar, why is there such a marked difference in their erosion pattern:-



another beautiful art in stone:-



this is the most beautiful piece i discovered that day. absolutely breathtakingly stunning:-



before soon, my cheerful disposition which was basking in the thoughts of being part of regal settings was defiled by a cruel pungent stink and brought me face to face with the cycle of time which i had always maintained takes its toll. the smell was due to the excreta of rodents which might be infesting the place at night.

rodents:-



lots of them:-



later, more than the excreta, i was saddened by the corruption that was a result of illiteracy and insensitivity among some rodents of our own species. they were more damaging than the rodents of the rodent species.

i wonder what would have happened to the guy who scribbled this, if he would have been caught doing this inside jodha bai's palace in those times:-



some respite was provided by the efforts that were being put up apparently by asi. but it was not really heartening to see that most of the work was being done in bad taste. but there was an effort nonetheless and it solicits appreciation.

the low quality patch-work, probably because this spot does not warrant as much importance:-



another spot of patch work:-



i was so elated by the cleaning-up efforts put up outside the complex and inside it that i suspected that they were repairing things and making them look as good as the original product.

now:-



then:-



the beautiful suspect:-


~~~

after long, i have done a post with pictures. i always like pictures, you may click them to view them enlarged.

the act of maintaining equilibirium

the problem is, it seems, that those of us who commit crimes are not directly reprimanded for those crimes. instead others seemingly innocent of our lot get punished.

you must have noticed the badge that i have on the blog since last few days. it refers to the seal hunting and carnage that goes on every year in canada. some bloody assholes bludgeon little seals, some of which are not even months old, to death. And it is not illegal. this is not just atrocious but barbaric.

and i guess people are starving in somalia, getting blown away in bomb blasts in iraq, and drowning in floods in bihar for the sins committed by some motherfuckers in canada.

DDA flats - probability of you getting one

it is ironical that in the aftermath of such terrorizing blasts in delhi, the housing scheme from dda is breaking new records in the number of application filed.

according to reports in national daily, they initially printed 4 lac forms and then ordered another 4. without speculating how much overquoting or underquoting [and not considering the numbers of downloaded forms, and not considering any reservations, and considering that everything behind the dda curtains will be done fairly ;-)] they have done, let us assume that half of the total number of forms were filled by young blood fueled by the IT industry and that all of them tried for 3 bedroom options. now there are around 352 such flats available.

going by simplest probability calculation [352/400000] the chances of me landing an allocation comes to 88 in 10 thousand. Or say for every flat more that 1100 people are trying to get it.

seems like chances of getting a flat are slimmer than chances of getting into IITs.

the wiring

females, no matter the species they are born as, are similar at certain level

attenborough, while following and filming the herd of african elephants, observes that a female elephant even when in season give a run around to the male elephant who has qualified as the potential mate.

it's all about the wiring.

relationships in the present state of society

on the cost of sounding subjective, again, i want to wonder whether our society can stop at the stage when husbands respect the self-reliance of their wives and the marriages are still as successful as they used to be in our parents' times? i mean mutual respect [such as that in the western society] but divorce rates still as low as they were in our society back in 80's.


~~~

some days back

the farmer

hari happily turned down the offer from a big corporation who wanted to gobble-up his land for peanuts [well golden peanuts, to be honest]. he'd been promised double the loan for the upcoming crop season by opposition party for agitating. he wasn't really dumb like other farmers but he didn't know he was being duped.

~~

today's papers were flashing headlines about tata threatening to pull out of singur. i personally don't favour nano or any other small car that would threaten to break the traffic sanity and add to already smog filled situation. i am not sure if the farmer is going to be benefited. i see 3 cons here:-

1. arable land shrinking
2. farmer going unemployed
3. further environmental imbalance

but i still think we should be going towards green surrounding not grey.

a trip to a school

weekend started with buying of a desktop pc for niece, which for me actually facilitated the trip on saturday morning to moradabad, 160 kilometers from noida. started with sitting at the back of prashant's car. the last when i went on a trip in his car was the hrishikesh trip last year. it wasn't the same month but there were similar flashes still. was with anjie in the back seat inside the car and there was fog outside. this saturday morning, it was overcast and it rained a lot too. for a hundred kilometers, i guess, we saw a good amount of water pouring on us without us getting wet. took a pit stop at now virtually closed reliance motel. i am sure, they would have improved the benchmarks for low cost pit stops looking at the kind of accessories that were installed in the facility.

the trip was about a visit to the school run by 'sankalp', ngo based in gurgaon. they have this school where they enroll kids who work in now dwindling but very health-degrading brass industry. they also solicit sponsorships for those kids who can not/ are not willing to pay. we organised a painting competition, gave away little prizes and a movie for those kids. the kids had good fun while watching the movie. we had good fun watching the kids. i didn't like the fact that we had lunch and snacks on school's cost. we were back home by around eleven in the evening. though i wished we further cover another 160 kilometers on that the trip, nonetheless, it was fun.

please visit here for a cheerful version :)

a critique

not that i have any problem with upper crust [in terms of money] of the society producing people good at art. it is just that when some study such as "the waffle of the toffs" by n. prabha comes before me, my faith is reinstated.

it is a critique where the author is trying to drive away a point that most of the gifted authors are from poor backgrounds and spend their lives in poverty and neglect. while those who receive all the medals receive them for the contacts they or their families have in the conferring institutions. she has picked indian writing in english as a subject. the funniest part is that the study itself is publish by some non-descript publisher. i got it as a gift.

in one of the comparisons, it shows how premchand with much more social relevance was nearly convicted for writing stories as compared to tagore who was decorated by the british empire for his socially useless, even anti-independence literature. and it is not just about the social relevance, she has compared the quality of literature as well. an eye-opener for sure.

do read it if you can lay your hands on it.

we are all going to

we are all going to die. no matter how pessimistic it sounds - it incessantly comes to the fore. although i have been repeating this phrase to prashant less often than i was doing in the other set of days. but listening to the rain, the sounds that he-cloud and she-cloud are making while having wild sex in this season which is not really meant for their mating ritual, i wonder how rapidly is it all changing [coming to an end]. i still remember, not as far back when i was in grade 8, we used to have virtually frozen fingers while starting to write our mid-terms. they used to be in november. and these days [those absolutely chilling and lovely] winters come for just 2 weeks, probably 3 if we are lucky - that too as late as january? in matter of a decade we have seen a near seasonal collapse. seasons which were taken for granted a decade back sound textbook ideals now. more and more natural calamities [south east asia couple of years back; united states, france last year; myanmar, china this] are happening with disturbing frequency.

anyways, problem stated, now let us state the solution - switch off those lights, walk more than you drive, abhor wood furniture, have sex on floor

and i shall be optimistic and instead think about having more unseasonal and impromptu sex like these guys above ;)

for those uninitiated, sex on floor means less detergents seeping and mixing into underground water :D

enjoy :D

begging = meals, or not!

problem with sad stories is that they bring you too close to the reality. sometimes life is great fun, even if for not a huge amount of time. you get involved in the merry making and then you realize that, for example, all the crackers that you blew were made by some poor kid in south india which were ruining his hands and life for probably half complete two meals.

but now you are back to the dilemma. now that the crackers are gone, do you keep burning the crackers and hope that the kid at least gets the two half-meals or abhor the crackers and save his hands while probably risk his legs which might be cut by the devil who wants him to look as miserable as possible while making him a genuine beggar.

when nudge comes to shove

with my eyes closed i wasn't sure of the crowd that was building around me. i wasn't really afraid but there was a doubt that was creeping into my mind. i knew my only chance would be to not let go off the grip of the rail that i had clung to for 2 hours or be shoved off the line for the prasad.

and all these wicked auntijis are experts at it, either they will sneer at you, or they will cajole you with sweet words or they will get physical knowing very well that the hardest of hardened criminals would give way to their shoulder nudges that lead to your giving away your spot to the back of the crowd.

this holi

the feeling that i got this holi was that it is dead, there aren't many people having fun out there and it is a shame. i mean holi has more energy than diwali. at diwali the energy is created by gun powder but at holi the energy is create by the laughter. human contact is such an integral part of holi. holi is what differentiates us from those firangis who have stuck up asses. holi reflects the warmth that is india, it reflects the love.

but i had fun. coloured 5 people with the darkest green water colour [which was easily removed after not much scrubbing - which i liked and did not like at the same time :D] and gulal with some more. barabar wali bhabi ko to mast rang lagaya :D

the amazing creations

it would be unjust, ignorant and subjective to say that there are no genuine cartoon character creators in india. being such a populace, it would be almost impossible to not have a genuine world-class cartoonist within us. but i wonder why are there not many wonders like the common indian of rk laxman. is it because we as sub-standard prejudiced readers can't appreciate or demand genuine stuff? i don't know of chinese [although everybody is aware of what rage japanese manga is] or danish cartoonists who created immortal characters but we do know of those [presumably] americans such as bill waterson who created calvin and hobbes, freg wagner created lyle and eugene of animal crackers, garfield by jim davis and many others and love a lot many of them.

don't stop talking

i was writing a comment on >chakoli's< blog regarding advent of internet and telephones and their impact on the way we communicate which inturn goes a long way in impressing on our personalities.

the problem with either telephonic or internet based communication is that we only communicate via one sense - voice. other senses [expression, touch, mannerism] which are as important, if not more, are missing from the 'communication'. thus it is very hard to convey to a person on the phone or chat or through blog comments if you were being funny and not at all sexist or offensive.

plus it is very hard when people are touchy and defensive [like i am]. if something has hit your sensitivity then i guess you should not get defensive by refraining from communicating your concern, but try to communicate about it and get it resolved.

guests

it saddens me and it enrages me at the same time when i read news such as that of scarlett keeling, the british teen who was raped and murdered but reasons such as

she was a kid
she was raped
she was a guest to the country [although this doesn't really matter to a huge number of people how our country's reputation is marred. hockey, for example; gill says he has nothing to do with the defeat - i guess he has only to do with making money]

i am enraged whenever i read news about mishaps with foreign tourists. i believe most of the tourists come with a certain beautiful imagery of our country and although most of that imagery might be corrupted the moment they land here, they still love it in some or the other way, if they decide to stay. what i hate is when they are violated by the crooks that roam the roads.

in school i read a story where the narrator visits and japan and standing on a platform exclaims to himself which goes something like, japan is great but i couldn't find good fruits there. within some moments a japanese gifts him a basket of fruits and requests him not to say the same thing about his country when the narrator returns back.

this is what i want should happen to the tourists. if they decide to stay, they should be treated as guests those in ideal india would be treated.

traffic revolves around girls

it is hard to remain clean when you are living in a muck filled stream. but you could still try to remain a little close to the surface where the sediments are the least.

[all the above was said with reference to the driving conditions culminated by amazingly knowledgeable, disciplined and responsible drivers on the roads {please consider the last 3 attributes to be sarcastic}]

i have noticed that people are a trifle more hard on [bad] women drivers when it comes to criticizing them. i mean it might be possible that the percentage of bad drivers in female species is like 99% as against 75% in case of men but being subjective is still being subjective. so i was pondering as to why females are in such a tight spot as drivers:-

1. they convert bad [and good] male drivers into crazy [and bad] drivers because as soon as the guys realise that the car driven on their left is by a girl, they start paying more attention on her anatomy than the traffic signals.

2. the girls pay more attention on the mirrors rather the bumpers of the cars in front [probably because the guys are paying attention to them]

3. the 9th and 10th biker are trying to jostle into a foot wide space between the two cars because the other 8 are piling around the girl on the scooty.

there are others but now i am going to do some work.

the dilemma of the recent times

a familiar unannounced digging exercise in the middle of the main road led me to a revelation that would soon become my one of the most serious dilemmas of recent times.

the revelation - no amount of oxygen inhaled in the morning run could match the pure oxygen that you get when you drive through the kilometer long stretch in front of the amity campus [i wonder if they have 80% of the seats reserved for girls].

the dilemma - i have now got into serious energy saving mode [at least to the point i could stretch]. some things that i now try to do all the time are:-

1. walk to places i could avoid driving
2. read electronic versions instead [read about energy-saving]
3. switch off lights and devices
4. considering buying a car [whenever] by looking at its impact on environment [even if at the cost of comfort or style]

please, do tell me if you know of some way to save energy that i missed above...

now coming back to the dilemma, when that main road is fixed i would need to drop that babe-stretch :(